Losing scholarships vs. losing practice time

Submitted by Dan Man on
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume that if we lost scholarships it wouldn't affect any current players or incoming players, but rather we'd have have to take slightly smaller classes in 2011, 2012, and maybe 2013. Seems to me that, with how young our team is right now, and with an urgent need to turn the program around right now, it wouldn't be that big a deal to lose a few scholarships over the next few years, whereas losing practice time might hurt us a lot. Although, it seems that usually the penalty matches the violation: if you practice too much, you're going to lose practice time. Do you think it would be wise to self-impose a scholarship penalty in hopes of mitigating a possible practice penalty? Or might that backfire and the NCAA would tack-on a practice penalty ON TOP of a self-imposed scholarship penalty. Anyone have any informed thoughts?
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formerlyanonymous

February 25th, 2010 at 2:30 PM ^

I think it depends on the number of scholarships or the amount of practice time. Losing an hour of week of practice for two years would make up most of the 2-for-1 time. If we drop a day or two of spring practice in each of those two years, that would make up most of the difference. Ideally, I'd rather to a little bit of both. If we can only lose 2-3 scholarships, which we're running under already for the most part, and do an even 1-for-1 practice time, that'd be the best case. I just wouldn't say just scholarships because that's just going to affect depth over a few years, and we've already seen how bad that hurts. Compare that to over-practicing which hasn't really helped anyway. So lose something that we know we need or lose something that isn't working already? I'm inclined to choose more of the latter.

Joined: 06/30/2008

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Irish

February 25th, 2010 at 2:33 PM ^

I would agree that practice time would be more important this season. Whether that continues to be the case for the year the penalties are imposed, assuming not they don't start until 2011, it would probably depend on how well the team plays this season. If they play like a veteran squad this season, get to a bowl game and gain those added practices, scholarships could be a bigger loss than practice time.

Joined: 06/05/2009

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licmer3

February 25th, 2010 at 2:42 PM ^

I look at it the other way. We need players for more depth. The more players are competing for there positions the level of play will rise to either take the position away or to keep it. Practice can be made up with offseason workout and drills done by the team leaders. I do see your point, but I think it works better this way. It's gonna end up being both along with losing a coach,but I don't think it will be horrible.

Joined: 02/24/2010

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MGoObes

February 25th, 2010 at 4:26 PM ^

to self-impose a scholarship reduction. the allegations are not recruiting related so why penalize yourself for that? they're practice time related so it would make sense to penalize yourself a practice or two

Joined: 07/05/2008

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Dan Man

February 25th, 2010 at 4:53 PM ^

Well, I was thinking that a practice time reduction might be a lot more hurtful than losing scholarships, so I was wondering if we could self-impose scholarship penalties instead of suffering practice penalties. I don't know if that would work and admit it's a bit far-fetched - but that was the gist of my question.

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TESOE

February 25th, 2010 at 11:31 PM ^

as the systems have changed so much. When we have senior leadership with 4+ years of experience in the system to lead off hour 7vs7 and group workouts - practice loss will weigh less than scholarships. Though the point has been made - this is dependent on the relative severity.

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